Coast Guard skipper out over 2 diving deaths

'Loss of confidence' cited after disaster on icebreaker

Capt. Douglas Russell, right, took over command of the Healy from Capt. Daniel Oliver in June. Now Oliver is coming back.

Capt. Douglas Russell, right, took over command of the Healy from Capt. Daniel Oliver in June. Now Oliver is coming back.

Photo: / U.S. Coast Guard

Photo: / U.S. Coast Guard

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Capt. Douglas Russell, right, took over command of the Healy from Capt. Daniel Oliver in June. Now Oliver is coming back.

Capt. Douglas Russell, right, took over command of the Healy from Capt. Daniel Oliver in June. Now Oliver is coming back.

Photo: / U.S. Coast Guard

Coast Guard skipper out over 2 diving deaths

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The Coast Guard relieved the skipper of the Seattle-based icebreaker Healy of command Wednesday as it continues an investigation into the deaths of two divers from the ship.

In replacing Capt. Douglas Russell, Vice Adm. Charles Wurster, who commands all Coast Guard operations in the Pacific from San Francisco headquarters, said he had "a loss of confidence in the officer's ability to command."

The Coast Guard flew Capt. Daniel Oliver, the Healy's commander before Russell, to Alaska to take temporary command of the ship.

Wurster also ended early the Healy's annual Arctic West science mission. The ship is slated to return to Elliott Bay on Monday. It had been due home in November.

Coast Guard officials said Russell's departure was based upon information surfacing from investigations into the deaths Aug. 17 of Lt. Jessica Hill, 31, of St. Augustine, Fla., and Petty Officer 2nd Class Steven Duque, 22, of Miami.

From Florida, Hill's family urged the Coast Guard to thoroughly investigate the deaths of the two divers.

"In the interests of the safety and well-being of others who may follow in Jessica's responsibilities and duties, we fervently hope that the Coast Guard will undertake a thorough and candid investigation of the circumstances surrounding Jessica's death," the family said in a statement.

Russell had been in charge of the ship since June, when he took command from Oliver. Oliver commanded the Healy for two years and then became chief of the enforcement branch within the Coast Guard's Pacific Area.

Ultimately, the buck stops with the ship's commander in any mishap. Coast Guard regulations say: "It is emphasized that the safety of all diving operations is the responsibility of the commanding officer."

Coast Guard diving procedures are based upon the Navy Diving Manual. Hill and Duque had trained at the famed Navy diving school in Florida.

Coast Guard veterans say privately that questions the investigation will ask include how many and what kind of crew members were monitoring the dive, and from where; whether the Healy was idle and its engine and propellers disengaged at the time of the dive; who serviced the divers' equipment and when was it last used; and whether all stations, including the bridge and engine room, were manned as required by qualified people.

The Coast Guard regulations restrict diving depth. They also require a preventive maintenance system for all diving equipment and the commander to designate a diving officer.

Hill and Duque were making a cold-water training dive off the Healy 500 miles northwest of Barrow, Alaska, when they both died, the Coast Guard said Wednesday. Initially, Coast Guard officials reported that the two died while making a dive to inspect the ship's rudder.

Russell, however, in a message on the Healy's Web site posted after Hill and Duque died, called it a "tragic dive accident" that occurred during training.

Russell said the ship had stopped for a short break after completing the western leg of its science mission and used the opportunity to conduct a dive operation. The week before, the ship had bored holes through ice to place seismometers into the sea. After several days of tracking, the ship's helicopters landed teams to retrieve the gear and data.

"The dive took place at the bow of the ship in a small area of open water. The dive operation was going pretty much as planned when something happened under the water while Lt. Hill and Boatswain's Mate 2nd Class Duque were underwater together.

"When a problem was detected by the personnel supporting the dive operation, the divers were retrieved from the water. Immediate medical attention was provided... ," Russell wrote.

"Unfortunately, the efforts were unsuccessful and Lt. Hill and Petty Officer Duque were declared deceased just after 8 p.m. local time," he wrote.

The ship then "pressed hard" for Barrow, where helicopters took the divers' bodies, Russell said.

The divers' bodies were airlifted to the Seattle area, where autopsies were conducted last week at Madigan Army Medical Center at Fort Lewis. The results are to be released when the investigation concludes.

The divers' bodies were returned last week to their families in Florida, where the families had them cremated and the ashes committed to the sea.

In Barrow, the ship took on not only investigators, but also a chaplain and a stress-management team assembled in and flown from Seattle to help crew members.